… determining arsenic sequestration by organic thiol groups of peat.
Arsenic (As) is a toxic metalloid which has attracted the attention of the general public because of its natural toxic concentrations in drinking water of millions of people around the world. The mobility and bioavailability of As thereby strongly depends on redox conditions, often linked to the redox cycles of sulfur (S), iron (Fe), and carbon (C). In reducing systems such as wetlands (swamps, peatlands, paddy fields etc.) As is thought to be mainly present in its reduced trivalent form as arsenite. Naturally, these systems are rich in natural organic matter (NOM) because mineralization of carbon is delayed under anoxic, reducing conditions. Furthermore sulfur, which acts as a main nutrient for plants, can also be present in its reduced forms as e.g. organic thiol groups in NOM-rich environments after anoxic decomposition of plant debris or reduction of released sulfate.
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Figure: (extract) Proposed conceptual model for the As-S chemistry in the minerotrophic peatland Gola di Lago, Switzerland. Scenario 1: arsenate and arsenite prevail as long as no reduced inorganic sulfur is present. Scenario 2: monothioarsenate formation from arsenite and surface-bound zerovalent sulfur species. Scenario 3: formation of higher thiolated arsenates from monothioarsenate under conditions of available free sulfide. (…) Entire figure and information here
Credit: Besold et al. 2018, ES&T, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b01542, Copyright 2018, American Chemical Society.